17 deaths now at San Antonio nursing home overrun by COVID-19

Nursing home patients account for half of the COVID-19 related deaths in Bexar County

(KSAT)

SAN ANTONIOUpdate 4/15/2020:

Another Southeast nursing home death was announced Wednesday by city officials. Up to 17 residents have now died of the virus.

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Officials are still investigating how the COVID-19 outbreak occurred at the nursing home, which infected more than 100 residents and staffers.

Additional details about the latest COVID-19 victim were not available Wednesday.

The facility has a history of poor health and safety ratings. At least two people who worked at the facility during the outbreak and one family of a resident have spoken to KSAT about how they think the administrators failed to adequately respond.

Update 4/10/2020:

San Antonio city officials confirmed two more residents from the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center who tested positive for COVID-19 have died.

A total of 12 nursing home residents have died of COVID-19 complications, accounting for half of the deaths in Bexar County.

Eight days after city officials announced an outbreak at a Southeast Side nursing home, nursing home officials said they were “saddened, devastated and somewhat confounded” about the how the outbreak occurred.

Update 4/8/2020:

San Antonio city officials confirmed two more residents from the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center who tested positive for COVID-19 have died.

A woman in her 70s who had previously been hospitalized, but was in hospice care at the nursing home died, as well as a woman in her 80s who was being cared for at the facility.

A total of 10 nursing home residents have died of COVID-19 complications since last week. They account for half of the COVID-19 related deaths in Bexar County. An outbreak was announced at the nursing home on April 1.

Previous Story:

San Antonio Metropolitan Health District officials confirmed Tuesday that five additional deaths were reported at Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center after a COVID-19 outbreak, bringing the total number of deaths there to eight.

Previously, only three deaths COVID-19-related deaths were reported to the city’s health agency. Those deaths were reported by the hospitals where the residents died.

An outbreak was announced at the nursing home on April 1. Since then, more than 70 residents and staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 at the facility on Southcross.

Over the weekend, however, Metro Health centers were notified of a fourth death this weekend at the nursing home. The man, who was in his 70s, had a COVID-19 test, but the result was inconclusive.

“However, after media interviews by family members suggested there were additional deaths, Metro Health requested that Southeast provide a detailed accounting of all deaths in recent days,” officials wrote in the news release.

Information showed that five residents died at the nursing home between Sunday and Tuesday.

“The deaths were all of residents 70 years old or greater, both male and female, who were asymptomatic but had positive tests for the virus,” according to the news release.

COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, stands for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March.

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